Many machines have mounted thereon a pair of ways which serve to guide a slide for movement in a rectilinear path. In some machines roller way bearings are mounted between the guiding surfaces of the ways and the slide for reducing the friction therebetween. The bearings are frequently in the form of recirculatiang linear roller bearing cartridges mounted on the slide and engaging the guide surfaces of the ways. While such arrangements perform satisfactorily on many machines, they frequently are costly, of complicated construction and require specially designed ways. In addition, such bearings do not always perform well in machines where an extremely high degree of accuracy of slide movement is necessary. To obtain an extremely high degree of accuracy of slide movement, preloading and fine adjustment of the bearing cartridges is essential.
The present invention has for its primary object the provision of an anti-friction bearing assembly incorporating a recirculating bearing cartridge adapted to be mounted on a slide in a manner enabling preloading of the bearing to a predetermined safe extent.
Another object of this invention is to provide a bearing assembly of the above type which can be manufactured economically and which is adapted to be used with conventional dovetail or rectangular ways.
A further object of this invention is to provide a bearing assembly of the above type constructed to enable very precise alignment of a slide relative to the ways on which the slide is mounted.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a bearing assembly of the type described which is self-aligning so as to accommodate for deflections resulting from loads applied to the slide on which the bearing assembly is mounted without imposing excessive or localized stresses on the assembly or on the ways of the machine.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and accompanying drawings, in which: